The Importance of your character’s wound

The Importance of your character’s wound

I’m certain you learned in English class that all characters must have a flaw. This is what stops them from attaining their goal. It’s what gets in the way of their relationships. But where does that flaw come from? It comes from the character’s...
Cheat: Get to know your characters faster

Cheat: Get to know your characters faster

If you’re a pantser, you probably start out writing your story with a vague idea of some characters—the protagonist, a secondary character or two, and maybe the antagonist. You know, sort of what happens in the story, or maybe you don’t. Maybe you just know that there...
Creating Characters to Love

Creating Characters to Love

People! They can be so difficult ( says the devoted introvert). They are extremely complicated beings with their likes and dislikes, their personal history, and so many different factors that go into how they see the world, how they speak, even how they dress. And...
Going into the Backstory

Going into the Backstory

Sometimes when you’re writing a novel, things just begin to get… stuck. You aren’t quite sure where your characters are going. Maybe you don’t know how they’ll grow, or what is holding them back from doing so. It’s at times like this that it’s best to go back to the...
Your Character’s Wound

Your Character’s Wound

I was so surprised last week when I realized that I had never written about a character’s wounds! I learned about this concept from Michael Hauge who speaks about character wounds in his incredible talk on “The Hero’s Two Journeys”.  The...